moving

We move house in 2 weeks time so I have started packing up the studio and there will be a lack of posts here until I find a place to unpack and get making again.

My shed has been fantastic - I stole a piece of a vegetable packing shed to use for ceramics and gradually expanded and ended up using most of the space.

Not sure where we are moving to just yet (long story) but we are trying to buy a place nearby which comes with a perfect little garden office which I have my eye on...

natural paints

textile glazing results

The weave plate with a clear glaze. A bit ugly but intact!

Hessian dipped in Poole Harbour slip much more interesting. I really did not think it would survive the firing and glazing but it has. Amazingly light, delicate and fragile. Exciting to learn that it is possible and I will definitely return to this technique again soon.

fabric update

The hessian soaked in slip is now (finally) dry. I shaped it as it dried but now think its probably far too thin to fire successfully...

It does allow for making interesting shapes and contortions. I will try and fire it next time the kilns going but may have to try and make thicker versions if I want them to survive.

more rust

The sea-salt bath I made to speed up wire rusting from an earlier project got left on a windowsill and forgotten... until i came across it again this evening.

The water has evaporated, the salt re-crystalized and the rust has left a beautiful stain in the bottom of the dish. Not sure I can use it directly for anything now but glad to have captured a photo.

frozen weave

It must have got too cold in shed last night - the drying weave plate has frozen and is covered in ice crystals. The slip that I wanted to decorate the plate with was frozen solid too.

20 minutes on the heater and the slips were liquid again and got splashed randomly over the plate...

I have brought plate into a (hopefully) frost free spot and now I have to hope it defrosts without cracking too badly. 

fabric soaked in slip

Fabric can be soaked in clay slip, the resultant mess shaped and dried can then be fired. During the firing the fabric burns away to leave a skeleton of very delicate clay.

An earlier attempt which I made using earthenware slip and hessian;

This worked in that it fired and showed me some of the potential of the technique. Earthenware clay is however not very strong and so the clay skeleton is very fragile. I originally made three but the other two - which were wound much more loosely and looked more interesting - dissolved and fell apart when I tried to dip them in glaze.

Now I am trying again using smaller pieces of hessian and some clay I dug from Poole Harbour. This is a ball clay which is extremely fine and extremely strong so I am hoping to be able to contort the hessian into more exciting shapes and for the finished result to look more refined.